Month: July 2009

I’m late on this (morning golf: another match-play victory, thank you very much) , so I’m going to sneak in a special fourth item:

Gee, I guess the Warriors are going all-in on Anthony Morrow, since their explanation for giving away Marco Belinelli was that they had to clear the decks for Morrow and were never going to play Belinelli this year, anyway, no big loss. That’s fine on the face of it–Morrow out-played and out-healthied Belinelli last year and a shooter like that deserves regular NBA minutes.

But that’s assuming Don Nelson will always be happy with Morrow, that Nelson will never bellow that he needs a better ball-handler or defender (I know, who am I kidding on the defensive issue?), and that Morrow will never get hurt or go through a long shooting slump and therefore render himself basically ineffective for 6 or 8 games at a time, since he’s certainly not a penetrator or a passer or a man-to-man defender.

That’s a lot to assume. Going all-in on Morrow is fine… as long as EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME AS RIGHT NOW, as long as the Warriors’ personnel judgements never change, as long as they know 100% that Morrow is chiseled in stone for 25 to 35 minutes a game, every night, as a winning NBA player.

Even then, they’ve lost Belinelli as a decent trade chip. Oh well, they’ve decided to clear the deck for Morrow and that’s that.

Perhaps having Belinelli around, just in case, might’ve been a decent thing. But apparently Morrow is a lock. Glad the Warriors/Nelson/Riley/Cohan have decided that. Oh, and they saved money, too. Surprising how it works that way.

—On to the regular items. Sorry I went so long on that precede item; I’m already exhausted and haven’t officially even started the real stuff…

1) I can get crazy anxious and over-reactive to just about anything in sports, but not about 11th-hour
negotiations for NFL first-rounders, at least not until the pads are on and the player is actually missing significant practice time.

So you can probably tell that, for at least several days, I will NOT be on the Michael Crabtree Hold-Out 24-Hour Crisis Hotine, screeching about the humanity of it all, about how he’s letting his teammates down, letting Singletary down, showing the inherent greediness of our terrible culture…

This is just how the NFL works, some of the time. Holdouts happen. Sometimes rookies even miss a few days of camp, and I have yet to see that lead to the End of All Things.

Absorb this straight cash-flow deal plus MT-2′s report, unrefuted, that the Warriors are planning on keeping 14, instead of the max 15 players this season to save money… And THEN let the homers tell me and MT-2 that Cohan isn’t having money problems that could and probably will lead to selling the team.

.

Yeah. Right

—Man, even the Warriors/Rowell/Mr. Nellie homers are going to have a tough time bucking up and praising the wise Warriors for this one.

So, since the dwindling homers probably need something to fire them up (’cause it can’t be the talents of Devean George!), I’ll give them some red meat:

Didn’t I tell you Larry Riley and Mr. Nellie were looking to dump 2007 first-round picks Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright because Nelson was done with them? Yes, yes, I believe I did.

OK, good, that oughta trigger at least five angry comments.

But even I didn’t imagine Nelson/Riley would give away Belinelli to Toronto for something as meager as George, who I know fairly well since I covered him his rookie year with the Lakers and have watched him fairly closely in the many years since.

This is just a dump. A we-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-this-talented-player dump. A terrible, misguided, noxious dump by a team now run by an erratic, tired coach and a GM who does his bidding.

(If they can’t do any better than this for the Wright dumping, whew!)

George is 8 years older than Belinelli, by the way. He has a $1.6M expiring contract this year, but Belinelli’s would’ve expired next summer if the Warriors didn’t pick up his option, plus Belinelli is MUCH MUCH BETTER than George.

Warriors fans might remember George from the 2007 playoffs, when he was a key Mavericks’ role player, and I think he even got a defensive turn or two against Baron Davis. George shot 20% in that series, so yes, he’s fantastic. (No, he never played for Nelson in Dallas.)

The only possible logic for this, I got fromMarcus T: The Warriors were not planning on picking up Belinelli’s fourth-year option, which would’ve left him as a lame-duck all this season, potentially in a poisonous mood.

If Freddy Sanchez was 28, instead of 31, and hit 15 home runs a year, instead of 8, and wasn’t currently sidelined by a sprained left knee…

Then maybe the Giants would’ve been smart to give up as valuable a pitching prospect as Tim Alderson to acquire Sanchez.

Maybe.

But unfortunately for the Giants, Sanchez is limping, he’s edging past his prime, he is not a power hitter, and I’m pretty sure the Giants gave up way too much to get him, since I do not see him as the one missing piece (plus Ryan Garko) that makes their offense championship-worthy.

Hey, I understand what Sanchez, a former batting champion and doubles-machine, can bring to a Giants’ line-up that needs any dangerous hitter it can get and has had an offensive black hole at second base this season.

I understand that the Giants are going for it, sensing that the Lincecum-Cain combo is going too well to let this chance slip away. I have respect for teams that go for it, when the timing is right.

Sanchez makes the Giants better, no question. And he’s under team control for next year, too, if his option vests (600 plate appearances, he’s at 382 now) or if the Giants just pick it up on their own, if he misses too much time for the vesting.

I realize that Brian Sabean and Dick Tidrow have a very good track record–with one MAJOR TITANIC exception–in dividing up which young pitchers to trade (Kurt Ainsworth, Jason Grilli, Nate Bump, Ryan Vogelsong, etc.) and which ones to keep (Lincecum, Cain).

The exception, of course: Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano to Minnesota for A.J. Pierzynski. (I won’t count including Boof Bonser in this deal as a negative.)

So we won’t know what Alderson is truly worth until he either bursts out as a star in Pittsburgh (and then of course gets traded again) or if he’s a bust by 2011.

I’m not saying I know that Alderson will be very good in the way that most baseball people are sure Madison Bumgarner will be very good. Who knows which young pitchers will stay healthy or will see their curveballs blasted regularly at the major-league level, and Alderson certainly does not have the dynamic repertoire of Bumgarner, or of Lincecum when he was in the minors.

I’m writing a 49ers column today, so no trip up to Napa. If I was writing tomorrow, I’m pretty sure I’d be making the trek up to Napa, since that’s when the Raiders start double-days.

But I’m not, as far as I know, though I will receive my secret Merc/Raiders instructions via dead drop in a matter of hours, I presume.

Still had to get something up about the Raiders, who are, as everyone knows, simply the most interesting team that ever existed. The players are reporting now, have been reporting to the Napa Marriott since yesterday, and everybody is expected by this afternoon–well, everybody except unsigned No. 1 pick Darrius Heyward-Bey.

I guess they’re in meetings today. Pads tomorrow. The season has begun.

* My buddy Monte Poole started my thinking with a well-timed reminder this morning: After firing Kiffin, Al said he might hire front-office help, cheering the realistic members of Raider Nation, and yet he still has not done that as training camp arrives.

I’ve heard a few names here and there, mostly involving 49ers personnel exec Tommy Gamble. But Gamble turned down Al’s entreaties a year ago and I don’t believe this is a live issue. I believe he’s the “local” guy that Al was referring to at the Kiffin proceedings, but that just never came to fruition, for various reasons.

John Madden was never a realistic option. I can’t imagine Al bringing in a total outsider. Looks like it’s Al and Only Al–except for a few kitchen-cabinet phone buddies–making the football decisions.

Thanks for reminding all of us, MPoole.

* Javon Walker hired Drew Rosenhaus. Fascinating. That’s what you usually do when you want a new contract, but Walker cannot be seeking a re-negotiated deal to the mind-boggling contract he received from the Raiders last year, negotiated by Kennard McGuire.

Because I had to transcribe it, anyway, for a future column on the 49ers QB situation, here’s the transcript of Alex Smith’s media session earlier today.

I thought he was as direct as he has ever been about the health of his shoulder: Clearly, Smith feels tremendous, tracing back to his outstanding performances in last May’s OTAs.

-Q: Scot McCloughan said you were throwing the best you ever have last May in OTAs. Did you feel that way, too?

-SMITH: You know, it’s the best my arm’s felt since the initial injury, that’s for sure. Any time after that, this is the best it’s been.

And in every way—strength, just my pitch-count, I guess. It’s the best it’s been. Obviously, just those couple years, I’ve really tried to stay in it mentally even though I haven’t played. I think I’ve come along there, as well.

Probably yeah, I would imagine this is the best I’ve felt since I’ve been here.

-Q: Even better than your second year?

-SMITH: You know, mentally I’ve come a long way. Even though I haven’t played a ton since then. Even being around the game, even being able to watch, you still take things away from it and still try to get better from it.

-Q: What’s better? You see things better?

-SMITH: Yeah, I think the more you’re around the game the more you tend to grasp it. The NFL game has it’s own uniqueness to it.

-Q: Do you think you’re even with Shaun? Ahead of Shaun?

-SMITH: At this point, I don’t know. I’m not going to get into who’s leading, who’s not. I think it’s still pretty open. I think the summer ball is getting us prepared for this moment.

I think this is the real competition. We’ve been competing this whole time. But this is when it’s really going to happen. We’re going to have to show it in games, we’re going to have to show it in pads, with real bullets flying, stuff out there with helmets. Yeah, we were competing…

-Q: There was a recent report that the 49ers hierarchy wants and expects you to win the job. Do you sense that at all?

Alex Smith, Shaun Hill, a few rookies and Mike Singletary conducted media sessions at 49ers HQ a little while ago, on the day that rookies and QBs reported to camp.

Of course, no Michael Crabtree, the No. 1 pick who has yet to sign–the only 49ers rookie left unsigned. But practices don’t start until Saturday, so I’m definitely not considering this a hold out or even a “watch” situation until the pads are on and they’re hitting each other and Crabtree is still absent. IF he’s still absent.

Singletary, as always, was the star attraction and, as always, he addressed every question directly.

Some highlights, before the transcript:

* I asked Singletary if he had missed significant time due to contractural issues because I figured he had. I knew the Bears of the 1980s had lots of issues with management–new passrush coach Al Harris and Todd Bell both held out all of the 1985 Super Bowl season, for instance.

Turns out Singletary said he held out twice: A week-long stint as a rookie, and three weeks the same summer as Harris and Bell, before the Super Bowl run.

* Singletary said Crabtree has done everything in the days leading up to camp to be prepared to go once he signs, including work with Alex Smith.

Nope, it does not sound like Singletary is ready to write off Crabtree if there is a holdout coming. At least if it’s a brief one, anyway.

Singletary also said Crabtree is “ready to go” full speed in camp once he signs, after missing all of the main work in the mini-camps and OTAs due to his broken foot.

* Singletary said the most important thing in the quarterback competition is for the whole team to know and trust the No. 1 guy.

* Singletary said signing Michael Vick was a “dead issue” for the 49ers. But he said he believes in giving guys second chances, generally, and that people have “done worse things” than Vick.

On to the transcript. Transcribed BY ME, in case you’re wondering.

—–SINGLETARY news conference transcript/

-Introduction: First and foremost before we get started I would like to express from the 49ers organization my condolences to the (Jim) Johnson family and the Eagles family, from the 49ers family.

Everything that I know about coach Johnson was… he was from the old school, he had a way of doing things, and some of the people, players, coaches that know of him speak very highly of him. And just really wanted to say that to begin with.

-Q: Any update on Michael Crabtree’s contract situation? Do you see him coming in soon?